Meet Gunbarrel Brewing Company

There are over 40 craft breweries in Boulder County, each with their own unique backstory, identity, and personality. Local craft beer enthusiasts here in and around Boulder will have yet another exciting brewery to frequent in just a few months when Gunbarrel Brewing Company, which will feature a broad range of intriguing and audacious ales, opens this year.

Gunbarrel Brewing Company’s opening will be the culmination of years of planning by husband and wife team Jamie and Marie Fox. According to Jamie and Marie, owning and operating a brewery is something that they always aspired to do during their eventual retirement. With Jamie’s long background in homebrewing and Marie’s experience in marketing and hospitality, it was a long simmering idea always at the back of their minds. After Jamie graduated from the University of Vermont with his Ph.D in neuroscience and completed his Post-Doctoral work at the University of Colorado Boulder, the duo found themselves in a transitional period and asked themselves why they should wait to make the idea a reality. Why shouldn’t they pursue it in the immediate future. Thus, tangible steps towards making Gunbarrel Brewing Company a reality began.

Currently under construction, the new brewery will feature a 3,200 square foot taproom along with an outdoor space. With the goal of providing a fun, relaxing environment to hang out and sample beers in on the weekend or enjoy a pint at after a day of work, the space will include games, feature regular live music, and aspire to have a cozy, community-driven feel.

Of course, the main attraction at Gunbarrel Brewing Company will be their exciting selection of varied brews.

“We make a broad range of beers and focus on what we like to drink,” says Marie. “This could be affected by the seasons, the weather, our moods, really anything. Each beer has a story behind it, and we aren’t afraid to play with our recipes and experiment.”

A particularly unique portion of Gunbarrel Brewing Company’s beers are their historical and rare ales, all with a modern Gunbarrel twist and interpretation. Additional exciting players in the Gunbarrel beer line-up include Bogan, an Australian sparkling style ale that is currently only being brewed by Gunbarrel Brewing Company here in the states. Fizzy, fruity, and crisp, it’s a beer like you’ve never tried before. Fresh Baked is their signature stout, full of flavor and including the enhancing ingredients of vanilla, apples, nutmeg, and cinnamon. There is Cherrish, a German rye beer brewed with organic cherries, Rosemerry, an herbaceous pale ale, Begbie Scottish ale, and many more unique beers to look forward to sampling. From experimenting with fruits to finding a new slant to any given style, Gunbarrel’s brews are a reflection of the founders’ own adventurous tastes.

Upon its opening, Gunbarrel Brewing Company will also strive to be an educational space for those interested in craft beer, where anyone can visit to learn about beer history, ingredients, and more. From a consistent monthly education series to the Found Fruit Project in which, during harvest season, organic local fruit that would otherwise go uneaten is used by the brewers to develop beers around, Jamie and Marie Fox have a wealth of surprises and hospitality in store for Boulder’s craft beer patrons.

To follow along with Gunbarrel Brewing Company’s progress and get more information on their opening, you can subscribe to their email list, check out their blog, and follow them on Facebook and Twitter.

About Lisa Van Horne

Lisa Van Horne is a freelance writer and editor. From growing up in Reno to the beaches of San Diego to the subways and train stations of New York City to Boulder's mountainous views, Lisa has been people-watching and scribbling all her life. Having found home in Boulder, Lisa enjoys learning about new people and places, taking on creative challenges, hanging out with her chocolate lab, and exploring all that Colorado offers.